Strauss, Josef

1827 – Josef Strauss, born on the 20th of August in Vienna, Austria. He was an Austrian composer. He was fondly referred to as ‘Pepi’ by his family and close friends.

1853 – His academic achievements at an early age do not point to him being a composer as he was also destined by his father for a career in the Austrian Habsburg military although he flourished as an architect for the Vienna City Council.

1857 – He married Caroline Pruckmayer at the church of St Johann Nepomuk in Vienna.

1870 – He never enjoyed good health throughout his life and during a tour to Poland, he fell unconscious from the conductor’s podium while conducting his ‘Musical Potpourri’ and was hastened back to his home in Vienna by his distraught wife.

– It was back home in the ‘Hirschenhaus’ that Josef died on 22nd of July.